Am I cheap? or am I frugal?

This question (Am I cheap? or am I frugal?)  has remained with me for most of my adult life. I learned early on how hard you have to work  for money and therefore learned to “respect” the fact that I needed a budget and a gameplan to keep those hard earned dollars and use them sparingly. After getting married, having kids and realizing how fast money could be spent if you were not careful (or even if you were being careful) I tried to shop as discount stores and watch for store sales. Several years into our marriage – I had stopped working to stay home and take care of our growing family – and my husband was working hard to support us. At about this time, we found out we were going to take a huge paycut monthly – I started freaking out!

With the help of prayer and friends and family – (I talk about it like was a blessing because it was) –  we were introduced to the world of coupons. (of course I had heard of them and used them occasionally, but had no idea what I was really doing). We had to cut about $300-$400 off our food/household bill alone – and with our family of 5 that wasn’t going to be easy – at least that is what I thought – Once I started couponing and seeing how much money we were saving – I was delirious. I couldn’t believe how much we were spending before, and not even getting as good of quality of items.  I loved it so much, I decided to start this site to help others who wanted to make a change in their lives.

That is a little bit of my history – not fast forward a few years and here we are – but over that time I have been called everything from cheapskate to pinny pincher. I am OK with that because I am just happy to be saving money and getting good deals. I get the same quality of items as the lady in the checkout lane in front of me, but I pay 50-70% less than her! I am OK with you calling me cheap, because it means that I am just a smarter shopper.

This week I decided I was in serious need of a new makeup bag. As you can see from the picture below, my bag just was not cutting it anymore. So I looked for a new bag here and (was a little surprised by the prices). I knew I didn’t want to pay more than $5-$8 and even then I was a little hesitant. (its ok to laugh, that is just my mindset).

So we went shopping at a local thrift store to get my daughter some new shirts and I started rummaging around in the bag area. I was so thrilled when I can up with this beautiful (NEW) makeup bag for only $2! WAHOO! Check it out:

It holds three times as much as my old one and is so much better. It also felt better because I knew that I had saved my family money by getting it there.

I always look at the books when I am there! I love to read and while I get a lot on my kindle, there are several books I can get 3/$1 and you just can’t beat that! I was looking at the Children’s books and found these Handy Manny books (complete with the trick or treat bags) for only $0.75 each!!! We grabbed everyone and will be using them for my sons 4th birthday party in October!

I was also able to find this serving set and a salad spinner for $6 total! I was so excited by the deals I found that day. Everything was new or in like-new condition and we paid a fraction of the cost we would have paid for any of it at any other store.

So what do you think? Do you think that using coupons and shopping at thrift stores is frugal? or does it make me cheap because I don’t want to pay full price? I would love to hear your thoughts about it!